Jaw Surgery Update
Saturday November 25th - Thursday November 30th
Surgery went well on Monday 11/27; I was taken back to the OR around 7 am and finished around 3-4 pm, so a total of 6-8 hours (we think). They decided to keep me overnight in the hospital for two nights to finish a course of IV steroids to help swelling and monitor my pain levels. I also had nose trumpets to help alleviate congestion and keep my nasal cavity stabilized; the team monitored these and took them out over the first 36 hours post-surgery (photos here). I finally made it home Wednesday around 2 pm.
While in the hospital, I was visited each day by members of the surgical team, including Ear Nose and Throat and Oral and Maxillofacial surgeons. I think there were a total of 5 surgeons in the team.
I also heard from my primary oral surgeon after getting home Wednesday and it felt good to be checked in on and to hear his summary of the surgery again. Here’s what he shared (very jargony!):
My face had more fibrous union (scar tissue) and not a whole lot of bone to bone healing, which presented some risk though was not unexpected. They were also able to remove all of the plates they wanted to during the surgery.
My maxilla, the upper jaw, was cut into three pieces to realign the teeth. They had to put the maxilla in the place where we would get the most optimal contact in the most compromised area, which is the left side, and thankfully that's where I had good bone that they could work with. So, the maxilla is now in a good place, plane and space, but it's not in the perfect position relative to the mandible.
My orthodontist has been made aware of the situation and believes she can work with my braces to align top/bottom jaws and get good occlusion over the post-surgical phase of orthodontic work.
Then they had to reconstruct the three other buttresses. The piriform rim, which is the rim next to the nose, and then the buttress on the left and the right side. They were able to salvage enough native bone from other places to reconstruct the buttresses. So the right side is in really good stead, the left side and the right side in the center where I have the sinuses there was just no bone at all so they harvested bone marrow from my hip and used bioactive material with my native bone and a special collagen carrier to bone graft the anterior maxilla.
So now we have bone everywhere we want it, or at least we have the potential for bone wherever we want it, and it should be nice and strong.
The most compromised area was between the bicuspid and the molar, where I had lost a tooth in the accident. The area was completely filled with scar tissue, so they cleaned that out and filled it with native bone and covered it with a bone block.
Pain/recovery:
My pain is kind of intense but well managed with pain meds and ice. I’m having a general aching in my skull/jaw, my lips and face are pretty swollen, and lips are kind of raw and blistery due to the wires in my mouth and the swelling. My face and lips are also very numb but with a deep ache; a weird combination that I am very used to by now. I look like I paid a lot of money for lip injections so that’s a fun silly perk of all of this 😊 (photos here)
All of this makes eating kind of difficult but I am getting used to it and it’s getting easier over time. I'm back to using MyFitnessPal app to track my weight, nutrition intake, and help make sure I am getting what I need for optimal healing.
My nose needs to stay moisturized and is often dripping blood, which we can expect to continue for the next several weeks. I’m not able to blow my nose for at least 4 weeks and using lots of nasal spray to keep it moist.
My hip is also pretty painful where they did the bone graft.
I’m sleeping well!
Next steps
Oral surgeon follow-up 12/6
I'll wear the splint for three or maybe even four weeks depending on healing
Then we'll take the splint out, and continue with my orthodontist for post-surgical phase orthodontic work
My diet is no chewing for 6 weeks at least, making sure to get good nutrition and clean my mouth after every meal. We'll gladly take any blended soup delivery or recipe recommendations!
